XML::RPC(3)

NAME
XML::RPC -- Pure Perl implementation for an XML-RPC client and server.

SYNOPSIS
make a call to an XML-RPC server:

    use XML::RPC;

    my $xmlrpc = XML::RPC->new('http://betty.userland.com/RPC2');
    my $result = $xmlrpc->call( 'examples.getStateStruct', { state1 => 12, state2 => 28 } );

create an XML-RPC service:

    use XML::RPC;
    use CGI;

    my $q      = new CGI;
    my $xmlrpc = XML::RPC->new();
    my $xml    = $q->param('POSTDATA');

    print $q->header( -type => 'text/xml', -charset => 'UTF-8' );
    print $xmlrpc->receive( $xml, \&handler );

    sub handler {
        my ( $methodname, @params ) = @_;
        return { you_called => $methodname, with_params => \@params };
    }

WARNING
Very little maintainance goes into this module. While it continues to work, is has certain quirks that may or may not be fixable without breaking backward compatibility.

I strongly recommend that, before deciding what to use in a new project, you look into Randy Ray's RPC::XML module. This seems to be a much more modern approach.

DESCRIPTION
XML::RPC module provides simple Pure Perl methods for XML-RPC communication. It's goals are simplicity and flexibility. XML::RPC uses XML::TreePP for parsing.

This version of XML::RPC merges the changes from XML::RPC::CustomUA.

CONSTRUCTOR AND OPTIONS

  $xmlrpc = XML::RPC->new();
This constructor method returns a new XML::RPC object. Usable for XML-RPC servers.

  $xmlrpc = XML::RPC->new( 'http://betty.userland.com/RPC2', %options );
Its first argument is the full URL for your server. The second argument is for options passing to XML::TreePP, for example: output_encoding => 'ISO-8859-1' (default is UTF-8).

You can also define the UserAgent string, for example:

    my $rpcfoo = XML::RPC->new($apiurl, ('User-Agent' => 'Baz/3000 (Mozilla/1.0; FooBar phone app)'));

METHODS

  $xmlrpc->credentials( 'username', 'password );
Set Credentials for HTTP Basic Authentication. This is only secure over HTTPS.

Please, please, please do not use this over unencrypted connections!

  $xmlrpc->call( 'method_name', @arguments );
This method calls the provides XML-RPC server's method_name with @arguments. It will return the server method's response.

  $xmlrpc->receive( $xml, \&handler );
This parses an incoming XML-RPC methodCall and call the \&handler subref with parameters: $methodName and @parameters.

  $xmlrpc->errstr();
Returns the last HTTP status code (200 when no remote call has happened yet). Can return 999 for some internal errors

  $xmlrpc->xml_in();
Returns the last XML that went in the client.

  $xmlrpc->xml_out();
Returns the last XML that went out the client.

  $xmlrpc->indent(indentsize);
Sets the xmlout indentation

CUSTOM TYPES

  $xmlrpc->call( 'method_name', { data => sub { { 'base64' => encode_base64($data) } } } );
When passing a CODEREF to a value XML::RPC will simply use the returned hashref as a type => value pair.

TYPECASTING
Sometimes a value type might not be clear from the value alone, typecasting provides a way to "force" a value to a certain type

  as_string
Forces a value to be cast as string.

    $xmlrpc->call( 'gimmeallyourmoney', { cardnumber => as_string( 12345 ) } );

  as_int
Forces a value to be cast as int

  as_i4
Forces a value to be cast as i4

  as_double
Forces a value to be cast as double

  as_boolean
Forces a value to be cast as boolean

  as_base64
Forces a value to be cast as base64

  as_dateTime_iso8601
Forces a value to be cast as ISO8601 Datetime

ERROR HANDLING
To provide an error response you can simply die() in the \&handler function. Also you can set the $XML::RPC::faultCode variable to a (int) value just before dieing.

PROXY SUPPORT
Default XML::RPC will try to use LWP::Useragent for requests, you can set the environment variable: CGI_HTTP_PROXY to set a proxy.

LIMITATIONS
XML::RPC will not create "bool", "dateTime.iso8601" or "base64" types automatically. They will be parsed as "int" or "string". You can use the CODE ref to create these types.

AUTHOR
Original author: Niek Albers, http://www.daansystems.com/ Current author: Rene Schickbauer, https://cavac.at

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE
Copyright (c) 2007-2008 Niek Albers. All rights reserved. This program

Copyright (c) 2012-2022 Rene Schickbauer

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.